Uganda Anti-Homosexuality law back on the agenda UPDATE

I am not comfortable with this post since finding out that the interview was initiated by CNN. Why did they choose to have this interview at this time when there havent been any recent discussions in the Ugandan Parliament on the Bill? Nor does it seem that President Museveni is wanting it raising it’s ugly head in the near future. It’s a warning to ME and others, to be more mindful of the international media in their reporting on LGBTI issues in Africa

On the Rolling Stone case - an interim court injunction was placed on the paper preventing it from publishing information it threaten to publish. Both the editor Giles Muhame and the paper itself have so far refused to take service of the court documents but the hearing is due to take place on Monday on a “fundamental rights suit” filed previously. The plaintiffs in the case are: Kasha Jacqueline, David Kato and Pepe julian Onziema.

In an issue dated 02 -09 October 2010, The Rolling Stone newspaper published names and photos of people they called “Top Homos” calling for their hanging. Three of the activists Kasha Jacqueline, David Kato and Onziema Patience aka Pepe mentioned in the paper are seeking media Justice and respect of fundamental Human Rights on behalf of many others. His Worship Judge Kibuuka Musoke will preside over the case.

After months of relative silence and following the outing of 100 LGBTI individuals in the Ugandan Rolling Stone “100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos”, a few weeks ago, the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill is once again being discussed.

The member of the Ugandan Parliament behind a controversial “anti-gay” bill that would call for stiff penalties against homosexuality — including life imprisonment and the death penalty — says that the bill will become law “soon.”
“We are very confident,” David Bahati told CNN, “because this is a piece of legislation that is needed in this country to protect the traditional family here in Africa, and also protect the future of our children.”

Governments that have donated aid to Uganda and human rights groups applied massive pressure since the bill was proposed a year ago, and most believed that the bill had been since shelved.

Not so, says Bahati, adding, “Every single day of my life now I am still pushing that it passes.” His statements come in the wake of a global outcry over a tabloid publication of Uganda’s “top 100 homosexuals” that included pictures and addresses of Ugandans perceived to be gay.

Since the publication in Rolling Stone, there have been physically and verbally attacks against LGBTI or people perceived as being LGBTI. At least one person has been arrested following what now appears to be entrapment by someone he had consensual sex with.

Another person was Stosh Mugisha

On the day that the tabloid was published, people started pointing at her and commenting, she says. Later that night, a crowd gathered outside her house.
“People were throwing stones through gate,” says Mugisha, “they were shouting, ‘Homosexual homosexual!’ I started getting scared.” Mugisha and her partner of one year had to flee their house the next morning, narrowly escaping stoning. Now they are in hiding.

“They start bringing in these issues like, ‘How can you be born gay? How can you be born lesbian?’ They really don’t know that we have battled to stand and be who we are,” Mugisha says….. Continue reading

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